Black, WILLIAM

Black, WILLIAM, novelist, was born in 1841 in Glasgow, where he received his education, and studied art at a government school with the view of becoming a landscape-painter. Instead, however, he adopted journalism, having written for the Glasgow Weekly Citizen prior to his removal to London in 1864. During the Prusso-Austrian war of 1866 he was employed as special war correspondent on the staff of the Morning Star; and in a novel, Love or Marriage (1868), he utilised some of his experiences. In Silk Attire (1869) and Kilmeny (1870) proved more successful than the previous work; but it was A Daughter of Heth (1871) that established his reputation with the novel-reading public. The Strange Adventures of a Phaeton (1872) is founded on an actual driving excursion between London and Edinburgh. A Princess of Thule (1873) is the best perhaps of all his many romances, with its vivid transcripts of Hebridean scenery, its quaint Gaelic-English, above all, its exquisite heroine. Among its successors are: Thrice Feathers (1875); Madcap Violet (1876); Green Pastures and Piccadilly (1877); Macleod of Dare (1878); White Wings (1880); Sunrise, a Story of these Times (1880); Shandon Bells (1882); Yolande (1883); Judith Shakespeare (1884), with Shakespeare himself for one of the characters; White Heather (1886); Sabina Zembra (1887); In Far Lochaber and The Strange Adventures of a House Boat (1888); The Penance of John Logan (1889); New Prince Fortunatus (1890); Stand Fast, Craig Royston (1890); Wolfenberg (1892); Handsome Himes (1893); Highland Cousins (1894); Brisets (1896); Wild Eelin (1898). Assistant-editor for five years of the Daily News, Mr Black in 1874 abandoned journalism. He died 10th December 1898.